Getting real

Things started to look up when writer-director Anurag Kashyap came on the scene. Motwane had collaborated with Kashyap on Deepa Mehta’s Water. Motwane went to Kashyap to get his opinion on the script and came back with a producer. “Anurag got very emotional while reading it and promised to produce it,” reminisces the 33-year-old. Kashyap came good on his promise after the cult success of Dev.D.

We catch up with Motwane over a cuppa on a rainy afternoon in suburban Bandra. He willingly obliges our photographer with “director poses” without much coaching. “I’ve got used to this drill,” he jokes. Since his film was selected for Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Festival this year,photo ops like these have become the norm for the Mumbai boy. He doesn’t remember much of the Cannes whirlwind except the board outside the screening room. “My name was up there with the likes of Jean-Luc Godard,Woody Allen,Ridley Scott and Alejandro Iñárritu. That is one abiding memory,” he says. For all the Cannes glory,Motwane is quick to point out that Udaan is not just a festival film. “The intention of making Udaan was to tell a genuine coming-of-age story for the Indian market. I’ve grown up on Indian films made by guys like Manmohan Desai,Prakash Mehra,Vijay Anand,Bimal Roy and Rajkumar Hirani. My audience is someone like me,” he says.

Motwane shot Udaan in 42 days. He chose to set it in Jamshedpur on filmmaker Imtiaz Ali’s suggestion. In many ways,the stark landscape of the steel city represents Rohan’s vaguely neurotic and violent father,essayed by TV star Ronit Roy. As Rohan begins to discover his hometown and his father,we too start to figure him out.
Motwane keeps his storytelling simple. The film’s misty grey palette underscores Rohan’s unfulfilled dream of becoming a poet even as his father forces him to work in the factory. The dialogue sounds real and hits home. There is an economy of lines with not a single extra word. Motwane has treated silence as almost a character in the film. Its eeriness speaks volumes about the dysfunctionality of this family.

Motwane’s deft handling of characterisations is a treat to watch. Roy’s antagonism is never explained by way of a back story. He is who he is and Rohan and the viewers have to deal with him. This is contrasted with Ram Kapoor’s sympathetic chachu act. Like Rohan,he too is a dreamer but lacks his nephew’s courage to break away. As Rohan,newbie Rajat Barmecha brings sincerity and freshness to his role. But the scene stealer is little Aayan Boradia who plays Rohan’s stepbrother,Arjun. The six-year-old is a natural heartbreaker and makes an impact unlike any child actor in recent memory. It is to Motwane’s credit that he extracted such a fine performance from the kid. “Everybody regaled me with horror stories of child actors. Aayan defied all of them. He’s fantastic and very sharp. The only brief I gave him was to say his lines normally and to not mug them. He’s a natural,” he says.

Motwane has packed Udaan with many autobiographical moments. The scene where Roy goads Barmecha to light up a cigarette is from Motwane’s life. “My dad offered me a cigarette when he came to know that I smoked. Of course,he was quite cool about it whereas in the film I gave the scene an angry texture.” There are more personal references like these: the boarding school bonhomie between Rohan and his friends is inspired by Motwane’s father’s salad days. It is the unfilmi-ness about the scenes that sticks to the mind.

Udaan is a confident debut — both technically and emotionally. Motwane attributes his technical finesse to Bhansali. “Working with him is as good as going to a film school. Sanjay is very demanding of everyone who works with him and justifiably so because he puts in that much himself. From him,I learnt the importance of detailing and preparation,” he says. Kashyap’s influence was more emotional. “He’s so fearless. Anurag is all about courage. He says,‘So what if you fall down,get up and do it again’,” says Motwane. He’ll be following Kashyap’s advice as he plans his next outing. He’s tempted to revive the Amitabh Bachchan project that he co-wrote with Bhavani Iyer. “Maybe I’ll do that film or maybe I’ll write a fresh subject. I don’t know. After the release of Udaan,I’ll know. I’ve waited so long for this,I want to see this through first,” he says.